HYDERABAD: In order to feed her family and overcome the financial crunch, the wife of a retired railway employee resorted to stealing bags and valuables from the passengers in crowded buses.
The woman has been arrested by the KPHB police on Saturday. Aruri Priya (36) is a resident of Allwyn colony in Kukatpally. Her husband A Venkatesh is a retired railway employee, and she has two children.
A year ago, Venkatesh had a heart surgery and took medical leave. With this, the family's financial condition became worse. Her daughter is aged about 20 years and her younger son are both college goers.
"In order to feed the family and meet the expenses, Priya hatched a plan to steal handbags, mobile phones and other valuables from the passengers in the crowded buses," said Kukatpally ACP N Bhujanga Rao on Saturday.
The ACP said that Priya was caught near the vegetable market in Kukatpally when she was moving suspiciously. She confessed to committing two offences in KPHB limits. In the recent offence at JNTU circle, she has stolen a handbag from a woman passenger. A five tolas gold chain, one pair of ear studs, and three other gold chains, all worth Rs 2 lakh and Rs 6,000 cash have been recovered from her, said the ACP.
In another instance, the KPHB police arrested two technicians working with mobile service providers, have been arrested for stealing BTS Cards used in mobile signal sites.
P Pavan Kumar (25), networking technician with Vodafone in the city and his friend D Ashok (29), network technician with Idea at Hi-Tech city. The duo was involved in stealing BTS (base transceiver station) cards from the sites where the towers were installed.
The KPHB police said that duo confessed of involving in five offences at KPHB (1), Miyapur (2), Shamirpet (1) and Bolaram (1), but, no complaint was received at Bollaram. About 26 BTS Cards worth Rs 14 lakh have been recovered from the duo and remanded them to judicial custody, said the police.